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Ahead of the upcoming Medicare Open Enrollment beginning October 15, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is releasing key information, including 2023 premiums and deductibles for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, to help Medicare enrollees determine the best coverage for their needs. “Today we’re delivering on our commitment to reduce health care costs for Americans, including 64 million people with Medicare,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, millions of Medicare enrollees will have lower prescription drug costs and improved benefits when they sign up this year. We will continue working to strengthen Medicare to ensure everyone gets the high-quality, affordable care they deserve.” “The Inflation Reduction Act will provide much needed financial relief and increase access to affordable drugs,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “It is more important than ever for people to review their health care coverage and explore their Medicare options during Open Enrollment this year.” Enrollment in Medicare Advantage — private health plans that cover all Medicare Parts A and B benefits and may provide additional benefits — continues to increase. Projections indicate enrollment will reach 31.8 million people in 2023. The projected average premium for 2023 Medicare Advantage plans is $18 per month, a decline of nearly 8% from the 2022 average premium of $19.52. Medicare Advantage plans will continue to offer a wide range of supplemental benefits in 2023, including eyewear, hearing aids, preventive and comprehensive dental benefits, access to meals (for a limited duration), over-the-counter items, and fitness benefits. In addition, more than 1,200 Medicare Advantage plans will participate in the CMS Innovation Center’s Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) Model in 2023, which tests the effect of customized benefits that are designed to better manage diseases and meet a wide range of health-related social needs, from food insecurity to social isolation. The benefits under this model are projected to be offered to 6 million people. The VBID Model’s Hospice Benefit Component, now in its third year, will also be offered by 119 Medicare Advantage plans in portions of 24 states and U.S. territories, providing enrollees increased access to palliative and integrated hospice care. Medicare Advantage plans participating in the Hospice Benefit Component will implement strategies to advance health equity across all aspects of their participation. CMS continues to improve options for enrollees who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. For example, in 2023, CMS will begin to require all Medicare Advantage dual eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs) to establish enrollee advisory committees and consult with those committees on various issues, including improving health equity for underserved populations. Additionally, new policies related to cost sharing are estimated to increase payment from MA plans to providers serving dually eligible individuals who incur high costs. As previously announced, the average basic monthly premium for standard Part D coverage is projected to be $31.50, compared to $32.08 in 2022. The Medicare Part D program helps people with Medicare pay for both brand-name and generic prescription drugs. Medicare Open Enrollment — Important Dates & Resources Medicare Open Enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7, 2022. During this time, people eligible for Medicare can compare 2023 coverage options on Medicare.gov. Medicare.gov provides clear, easy-to-use information, as well as an updated Medicare Plan Finder, to allow people to compare options for health and drug coverage, which may change from year to year. Medicare Plan Finder will be updated with the 2023 Medicare health and prescription drug plan information on October 1, 2022. 1-800-MEDICARE is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide help in English and Spanish as well as language support in over 200 languages. People who want to keep their current Medicare coverage do not need to re-enroll. During Open Enrollment, people with Medicare who take insulin are encouraged to call 1-800-MEDICARE or contact their State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (https://www.shiphelp.org/) for help comparing plans and costs this year. To help with their Medicare costs, low-income seniors and adults with disabilities may qualify to receive financial assistance from the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs). The MSPs are essential to help millions of Americans access high-quality health care at a reduced cost, yet only about half of eligible people are enrolled. The MSPs help pay Medicare premiums and may also pay Medicare deductibles, coinsurance and copayments if people meet the conditions of eligibility. Enrolling in an MSP offers relief from these Medicare costs, allowing people to spend that money on other necessities like food, housing or transportation. Individuals interested in learning more can visit: https://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare-costs/get-help-paying-costs/medicare-savings-programs.  |
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The skills you need to improve in sales are mostly found in the fundamentals. While there are a great number of people and companies that promise that this technology or that one will improve your sales results, you are better off working on improving your ability to conduct a sales conversation with your prospective clients.
The skills you need to improve your sales include:
- Gaining commitments
- Scheduling a first meeting
- Creating value in the sales conversation
- Diagnosing client scenarios
- Modern storytelling
- Negotiating
Before we look at each of the primary skills that make great salespeople, it's important to recognize that selling is a craft. The only way you can improve your results is through practice, and studying what works, what doesn't, and when and how to use certain strategies, tactics, and conversations.
When working to improve in any endeavor, it’s necessary to develop skills that support the outcomes you need. Selling is a series of conversations. The greater your skills, the better these conversations will be, and the more they help the client improve their outcomes. You have to practice these skills to learn them.
Gaining Commitments
The first outcome a salesperson needs to create is a first meeting, so the first skill of a great salesperson is the ability to obtain a commitment from a prospective client. Every step forward requires you to gain another commitment from your contacts.
In the Lost Art of Closing: Winning the 10 Commitments That Drive Sales, you will find 10 different commitments that allow you to facilitate the client's buyer's journey. This starts with the commitment for time, exploring change, committing to change, collaborating, building consensus, investments, reviewing solutions, resolving concerns, deciding, and executing. In this book, you will find the Trading Value Rule, which helps your clients commit to the next step.
You can improve your sales skills by practicing and improving your ability to gain commitments.
Scheduling a First Meeting
The goal of prospecting is creating a first meeting, which requires picking up the phone and calling a stranger. Those who do well at booking meetings are not conflict averse and don't worry much about the occasional grouchy person hanging up on them. They have the thick skin that prevents them from believing they were personally rejected.
Salespeople who are skilled at scheduling a first meeting trade value for the client's time. When a contact refuses the meeting, the salesperson gently restates the value the client will receive by taking the meeting. They are also skilled at addressing the client's concern that a meeting will be a waste of time.
Improving this skill means making many hundreds of calls and becoming immune to any negative outcomes. By practicing each day, you'll improve your sales results.
Creating Value in the Sales Conversation
This is a higher hurdle to clear. It's also the most important skill when you are sitting across the table from your contacts. To enable this skill, you must bring business acumen to a conversation with your clients. When we talk about creating value, your primary goal is to educate your clients on a key aspect of their business. While your ultimate goal is helping the client make the best decision for their business, you achieve this through a series of business conversations.
This sales skill is the one to rule them all. If you are unable to create value for your clients in a sales conversation, improving your outcomes is close to impossible. This higher-level skill requires that you study the modern sales approach and possess the insights that your contacts find valuable. This skill is one you must practice every day, in every sales call. It is more difficult to acquire, but by studying, you can improve faster.
Diagnosing Client Scenarios
Your client has problems and challenges. What once worked for them now fails. They are uncertain about what to do or who to work with to turn things around. The person who can explain why the client has the problems that harm their results will grab their attention. Following that explanation, a highly skilled salesperson will diagnose the root cause of the problem and what the client will need to do to improve their results.
Having practiced this for years, you will find that, at some point, you can immediately recognize the pattern that allows you to assess the scenario in a blink of an eye. The education you develop over hundreds of meetings with your clients adds up, making you a sort of expert in the different client scenarios you encounter over time.
Modern Storytelling
There are a lot of people who believe the stories salespeople tell should be about their company and all the ways they have helped their clients. While these stories are sometimes helpful, modern storytelling is about the external environment and its impact on the client's business. It also tells a story about what works now, what doesn't, and why. These stories depend on business acumen and a perspective that helps clients learn and understand how to turn things around.
One way to think about your stories is that you are making sense of your clients’ world and how to best address their challenges. These stories carry more weight than some of the legacy stories about your company and your solutions.
Negotiating
In many deals, improving your sales skills will require you to negotiate with your contacts, even the nice ones who must do right by their company and ask for a discount or concession. When you are new to sales, you might fear that pushing back will cause you to lose deals. By improving your skills over time, you will learn to ask for something valuable in exchange for whatever you give your new client.
Like all the skills here, the only way to acquire them is to practice. Selling isn't something that you can learn from books alone. Reading can help you get started, but you need to practice to improve your skills.
Preparation is key. Use the tools available to you to your advantage and learn what’s worked in the past, applying best practices to fuel your own success. If you’re new at this, talk to some industry veterans. If you’re tenured, reflect on what’s worked well for you in the past and explore opportunities to take your efforts to the next level this AEP.
Get a head start as much as possible. 
Knowing how to do business across multiple platforms can help boost your visibility, as well as your overall efficiency. Whether you’re conducting business in person, over the phone or sending personal emails, it’s all important and impactful — and they all go hand-in-hand. And don’t dismiss the power of social media. You can reach a lot more people in a more efficient manner with a quick, well-crafted social media caption.
A strong focus on being personable and showing empathy can go a long way toward business retention. Your future success depends on how well you do during this AEP, and you want to build on this success year after year.
